Atari: 80 Classic Games in One review (PC)

The vector games, on the other hand, seem to have the most trouble staying true to their arcade originals. Since these games originally used special monitors that produced graphics with rays of light rather than pixels, the versions of these games in Atari: 80 Classic Games in One are more of a simulation than anything else. While Tempest, Battlezone, and Red Baron resemble what you might see in an arcade, Gravitar produces graphics so small that they are nearly impossible to see, regardless of what resolution you select. Across the board, the vector games also have the most inaccurate sound, at times sounding nothing like the real thing. If you grew up playing these games in arcades, you'll be pretty disappointed by these re-creations.

As previously mentioned, the controls for all of these games are very twitchy and overly sensitive. This holds true if you're using a joypad, a mouse, or a keyboard. While the sensitivity can be adjusted, even on the lowest setting, something still doesn't feel quite right. To compound this problem, each and every game has its own individual settings, forcing you to adjust the controls to your liking for every game you choose. Why some sort of universal control configuration wasn't included is a mystery, and this ultimately detracts from this compilation.

Atari: 80 Classic Games in One does feature an incredible number of games for a budget price. Too bad about the various inaccuracies and quirks found in the translations of many of the better games. As such, this is a decent product, overall, but if you're looking to relive your gaming days of old and demand nothing less than perfection, you'd be better off finding another way to get a classic-gaming fix.